Here is my stupid question for the day:
What is the difference between chord/melody and fingerpicking?
Definitely
not a stupid question.
Chord melody is playing chords of a song in voicings that put the melody note on top of the chord so it stands out.
Here are the first few bars of
April In Paris. The red indicates a lazy triplet (quarter note triplet) and the X is a rest. Chord melody can be played either with the fingers or with the thumb or a pick.
_5__4_ _
3_
3_
3_______ ________5__4_ _
3_
3_
3_______
_5__4_ _3_3_3__6__7_ _
X_
6_
7__5__4_ _3_3_3__6__7_
_5__4_ _3_3_3__6__7_ _X_6_7__5__4_ _3_3_3__5__6_
______ ________6__7_ _X_6_7_______ ________6__5_
Finger picking has many variations, but often means keeping an alternating bass going with the thumb while either picking the melody on the treble strings or playing a pattern (pattern picking) to back up a vocal. Here's a bit of
Five Foot Two. (C / / / |E7 / / / |A / / / |/ / / / |D / / / |C. . .)
____________ ____________ ___0______0___ ___0_______0_ _3__3__3_0___ ____
_0__3_0_____ _0__4_0_____ _0______0_____ _0______0____ _____________ _3__
____0_____0_ ____2_____2_ _____1______1_ _____1_____1_ ____2______2_ ____
_0_____0____ _1_____1____ _2______2_____ _2______2____ _2_____2_____ _0__
Pattern picking is playing a pattern over chords to back up a song:
_M________M___ ____M_______M____
______I________ ________I_________
____T________T_ ______T________T__
_T______T______ __T_______T_______